The Reverend Fred Nile has reentered politics, vowing to run in the NSW election as number two on his wife’s ballot.
Crikey has confirmed the 88-year-old, who announced his retirement just four months ago, has changed his mind.
The conservative veteran said in October last year he had been called by God to quit politics.
He endorsed his wife Silvana Nile, 64, to continue his political legacy in the NSW upper house.
While some sources close to the reverend believed his decision to run again is designed to boost his wife’s chances of winning, rather than get himself reelected, his office denied that was the case.
Silvana Nile also denied that was the strategy.
“I’m the lead candidate, and Fred Nile is number two, and we both hope to be elected to the Legislative Council in the 2023 election,” she told Crikey.
Nile, a deeply conservative independent who formerly led the Christian Democratic Party (CDP), was first elected to the NSW Parliament’s upper house in 1981.
Both husband and wife split with the CDP earlier this year after a messy falling-out that included a court battle with the party’s former treasurer.
Silvana Nile, who recently helped form the Revive Australia Party (Fred Nile Alliance), will also run as an independent, because the party didn’t register with the state’s Electoral Commission in time.
